Galactica Discovers Earth, Part III

"Galactica Discovers Earth, Part III" An episode of the Galactica 1980 series
Episode No.	Season 1, Episode 3
Writer(s)	Glen A. Larson
Story by
Director	Sidney Hayers
Assistant Director
Special guest(s)	Herbert Jefferson Jr as Boomer
Production No.	85510
Nielsen Rating
US airdate	1980-02-10
CAN airdate	{{{CAN airdate}}}
UK airdate
DVD release
Population	survivors
Additional Info	Script available for download (incomplete) Information Novelization
Episode Chronology
Previous		Next
Galactica Discovers Earth, Part II	Galactica Discovers Earth, Part III	The Super Scouts, Part I
[[IMDB:tt{{{imdb}}}|IMDb entry]]
Listing of props for this episode
Related Media
			@ BW Media
Promotional Materials
Online Purchasing
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iTunes: USA

A Colonial team, in Earth's past, must work fast to stop a rogue council member from altering Earth's history in Nazi Germany.

Summary

• With time running out, the team splits up. Dillon and Major Stockwell go to sabotage the rocket, while Troy and Jamie Hamilton head into the rocket base bunker to confront Xaviar.

• Reaching the launch pad, Dillon fires on the V-2 just as it takes off with his laser and destroys it.

• Xaviar having failed, comes immediately under suspicion by the Nazis, and is declared to be a spy.

• Troy and Hamilton, who are still disguised as German soldiers, haul Xaviar away.

• With Xaviar captured, the Colonial team and Stockwell now turn their attention to making sure the convoy to Auschwitz is stopped.

• Flying through the air on their motorbikes, Troy and Dillon fire on the German guards, while Stockwell releases the Jewish prisoners.

• Hamilton, realizing where/when they are in history, explains that the Nazis cannot pursue them, since the D-Day landings have begun and the local German units have all been ordered to defend Normandy.

• The time has come to return to 1980, and Stockwell says a sad goodbye to Jamie Hamilton.

• Just as they are approaching the Vipers, Xaviar escapes, activates his invisibility screen, and gets away.

• Returning to 1980, Troy and Dillon land their Vipers in California and proceed to drop off Hamilton at a bus station.

• As the Greyhound bus drives away with Hamilton aboard, a sheriff recognizes Troy and Dillon from a wanted poster.

• The sheriff pursues the duo in his squad car, but the Colonials again escape into the air on their bikes.

• Arriving back at the field where they parked their Vipers, Troy and Dillon discover the ships are being hauled away by the local military and police.

• Troy and Dillon discover this is due to a boy having discovered their Vipers, and go to find young Willy at school.

• Once there, they discover Willy Griffin has been getting beat up for his spreading of tall tales about spaceships by a bully named Tucker.

• Troy and Dillon make a deal: if Willy will tell them where the Vipers have been taken, they will lend him one of their wrist computrons.

• Willy agrees, and uses the computron to go invisible and torment Tucker.

• Having gotten even with the bully, Willy tells the Colonials the location of their ships, and also mentions there was a third Viper, which was the one belonging to Xaviar.

• Colonel Boomer comes to see Adama to bring him up to date on the developments, and Adama has all the Colonial missions to Earth recalled until Xaviar can be located.

• Xaviar, in the meantime, has returned to Los Angeles, and after seeing a UBC news broadcast, determines to go to the studio to look for Doctor Mortinson.

• Xaviar convinces two LAPD officers to give him a lift to UBC.

• Arriving there, Xaviar uses invisibility to lose the officers, who have grown suspicious.

• Xaviar identifies himself to Dr. Mortinson as one of the visitors from space.

• Arriving at Mortinson's beachside home, Xaviar tries to convince the scientist about the benefits of returning to various time periods to change Earth's history.

• Troy and Dillon track down Hamilton at UBC to loop her in on events.

• Hamilton calls Mortinson to warn him about Xaviar, but before Mortinson can react, Xaviar pulls a gun on him.

• Arriving at UBC, Troy and Dillon meet Hamilton, and together they head out to the base where the Vipers are being kept, in hopes of capturing Xaviar.

• Hamilton lures away one of the sentries and Troy and Dillon are able to sneak in. As they do, Xaviar materializes in his own Viper and proceeds to the base's generator to suck up enough power to launch.

• Xaviar spots the Colonials and shoots at them, before putting Troy down with a stunner.

Troy Jamie and Dillon aboard Galactica

• Before Troy can stagger back to his feet, Xaviar takes off, leaving Mortinson behind.

• A dozen sentries are now bearing down on them, but Troy and Dillon dispatch them effortlessly with a few laser stun blasts.

• Dillon jumps into his Viper and discovers Hamilton already in the back seat.

• Launching their ships, Troy and Dillon pursue Xaviar into space, but they open fire too late and Xaviar's Viper enters a timewarp.

• Troy, Dillon and Jamie return to Galactica, and meet with Adama in his quarters.

• Adama reveals that Xaviar has gone to Earth's 18th century to interfere in the history of pre-Revolutionary America.

• Hamilton agrees to help Troy and Dillon with their next mission.

Notes

• Troy, Dillon, and Jamie's time travel adventure in 18th century America was never scripted or produced.
• The scientific advancement of Earth premise was sadly dropped after this episode.
• The various missions into Earth's past—from Moses's obtaining the Ten Commandments to Civil War America—which are depicted in the novelization of the episode are not shown on screen.
• Ted Gehring (the sheriff in patrol car) played Croad in the Battlestar Galactica episode The Long Patrol.
• Jamie's farewell to Troy and Dillon at the bus stop is one of the best moments of the entire series (which isn't saying much).
• The opening title sequence is terrible, composed entirely of stock footage from the original series. It looks like a bunch of sequences sloppily scotch-taped together, which was undoubtedly the case since the show was rushed into production.
• Although Dr. Mortinson is mentioned frequently throughout the series, the character is never seen again.
• Dr. Zee is the only character on either series shown wearing glasses.
• The German portions of this episode take place on June 5, 1944 and the morning of June 6, 1944. The later date is when the Allied offensive known as D-Day begins.
• A band named Ookla The Monk makes a reference to Galactica 1980 in a song called Tommy: "Everything good turns to crap. It turns to crap and I don't mean maybe, just like Galactica 1980. It turns to crap. Crap!"

Questions

• Didn't any of the German officers notice that one of their own was a woman?
• Why didn't Dillon remove Xaviar's wrist computron, thus preventing his ability to escape?
• Why does Troy approach the Viper from the front, knowing full well that he could easily be killed by the Viper's lasers?

Noteworthy Dialogue

• After Dillon stuns Stockwell:

Dillon: Primitives. All alike. What are you going to do with them?

• Dillon looks up the word coffee:

Dillon: "A beverage made from a bean. Usually served hot." (looks at Troy) Troy, they drink beans!

Guest Stars

• Richard Lynch as Xaviar
• Robbie Rist as Doctor Zee
• Robert Reed as Donald Mortinson
• Christopher Stone as Major Stockwell
• Albert Paulsen as General Yodel
• Louis Turenne as Colonel Werner (credited as "German Officer")
• Michael Strong as Smite (credited as Resistance Leader/The Old Man)
• Fred Holliday as Mr. Brooks
• Ted Gehring as Sheriff
• Hank Brandt as Colonel Mason (credited as Air Force Colonel)
• James R. Parkes as Walt Griffin
• Adam Star as Willie Griffin
• Curt Lowens as German Commander
• Duncan MacKenzie as 3rd Guard
• Jonathan Williams as 2nd Guard
• Paul Brown as 4th Guard
• Ray Duke as Newsboy
• Billy Jacoby as Tucker
• Missy Francis as Little Girl
• Doug Hale as Major Grimsley (credited as Air Force Major)
• Wyatt Johnson as Beat Cop #1 (uncredited)
• Charlie Brill as Beat Cop #2 (uncredited)
• Uncredited as Harvey

External Links

• Galactica Discovers Earth Part 3 Full Episode on YouTube
• Galactica Discovers Earth review and analysis at Sheba's Galaxy.

Galactica 1980 definition: computer ^{(1980: "Galactica Discovers Earth, Part I")}

Commander William Adama's nickname, used by officers aboard Galactica ^(TRS: "33")